The big picture has the forest. The little picture has the trees.
Hawaii has used last week’s bye week to focus on both, looking at the calendar of the next 11 weeks as the forest and the potential of 20 more matches as the trees. The top-ranked Rainbow Warriors also have the opportunity to do some formative pruning on themselves, retrenchment in arboreal terms, a process that encourages development.
That adventitious growth has been apparent with Hawaii (14-0) remaining one of two unbeatens midway through the men’s volleyball season. The Warriors have been impressively efficient, dropping just two sets, and returned home from its trip to Stanford having swept the Cardinal twice on “The Farm” for the first time since 2006.
“I think the best part was remembering my freshman year when we went up there and they played incredible, won those in pretty dominant fashion,” Hawaii senior hitter Colton Cowell said, recalling the two losses at Stanford in 2016. “For us to go up there and get two road wins against a team that’s always been good at home and has pretty incredible athletes … it’s a very fulfilling experience.
“What’s nice about the bye week is we’ve been able to train really hard in the practice gym and give everyone’s bodies a chance to recover. We’re getting ready for Nittaidai and BYU, two really competitive opponents. We need to be at 100% to be ready to compete at 200%.”
Much like the Warriors circled the conference dates against Long Beach State last season on their collective calendar, so, too, they’ve done with March 5 and 6 when hosting No. 2 Brigham Young (15-0). Only Saturday’s match at Stanford stands in the way of the Cougars also being undefeated when coming into the Stan Sheriff Center.
“For sure it’s hard not to look at the big picture and see who’s doing well across the nation,” Warriors assistant coach Josh Walker said. “But it’s easier to stay in the moment than you might think.
“We’re taking it one day at a time, one week at a time. Everyone is trying to improve. It’s easy to see the schedule for the rest of the year, BYU and league play. It comes down to making sure you’re ready and prepared.”
The Warriors close out February with two exhibitions against Nittaidai of Japan Wednesday and Friday.
“They have a different style of play,” Walker said. “Typical in the U.S. system, teams make a ton of errors. They don’t make many errors. They’re not going to give us a ton of points. They’re one of those teams that will play efficiently. It will be good for us.”
Hawaii hit a season-low .247 in its last match, dropping the Warriors to .386 for the year. They continue to lead the country in hitting percentage with BYU No. 2 at .349.
On the second night against Stanford, Hawaii cut its serving errors to nine to go with seven aces. The Warriors had 10 or more errors in each of their previous four matches, nine times for the season.
Hawaii continues to lead the country in home attendance (4,382), with all eight of the Sheriff Center matches in the top 12 and seven in the top nine. The Warriors also continue to boost the attendance at away matches, with all five of their road matches ranked in the top 42 and all season highs for the hosts.
That includes Stanford in Maples Pavilion (996) and Burnham Pavilion (1,414). Both were decidedly pro-Hawaii, with the “Viking Chant” that is traditionally done in the Sheriff Center on aloha ball making its way across the Pacific.
“That was really fun, to see that positivity and enthusiasm from an away crowd was really special,” sophomore middle Max Rosenfeld said. “We knew we had some family there but we had a lot of fans.”
“We’re never surprised by the turnout of our fans,” Cowell added. “They’re incredible. It allows us to play better and raise our level.
“It just solidifies that we do have the best fans in the world when it comes to volleyball. It’s incredible that they can completely populate an away gym like that.”
